Medication Comprehension and Safety in Older Adults

Older adults constitute just 13% of the U.S. population, but consume 35% of all prescription drugs. They are at a particularly high risk of serious adverse events due to errors in medication-taking, but little is known about the instructions community-dwelling elders receive about their medications, or how they organize their medications at home. This Issue Brief summarizes research that describes home-based patterns of medication use in elderly patients, and for one high-risk medication, analyzes the relationship between recall of instructions and subsequent drug-related hospitalizations. These findings may help clinicians better predict and monitor their patients’ adherence to prescription drug regimens.